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DETROIT – The worst outbreak of COVID-19 in Michigan is starting to slow down car production, with a major Ram truck factory reducing its production due to a large number of absent workers.
About 10 percent of the production workforce at the Stellantis assembly plant (formerly Fiat Chrysler) in Sterling Heights, north of Detroit, tested positive or quarantined, a person who was briefed said Friday. This is equivalent to about 600 workers, said the person who asked not to be identified, because neither the company nor the United Auto Workers union communicate details.
The 5 million square meter factory has about 7,450 workers per hour, but not all are on assembly lines. To try to stop the deficit, the company took workers out of a pick-up plant near Warren, Michigan, which was forced to stop due to global semiconductor shortages.
But because those workers need to be trained to build the new Ram pickups, the assembly line is moving slower than usual, said the person who did not know how much production had been lost.
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As it did weeks ago, Michigan continues to suffer from the highest seven-day case rate nationwide, 538 per 100,000 residents, the federal government reported.
The UAW has confirmed that cases are on the rise in Sterling Heights. Many of the absent workers did not give positive results, but are either waiting for tests or isolating themselves due to close contact with others who have the virus, the union said.
“As the numbers change, we can say that there has been a recent increase in cases, as there is throughout Michigan,” UAW Vice President for Stellantis Cindy Estrada said in a statement.
She urged workers to be careful to “keep our plants and members and families safe in the UAW.”
Stellantis also would not provide numbers, but confirmed that it has made employees have positive results for coronavirus as cases grow in Michigan.
The company said in a statement that it had taken steps to keep factory workers safe and urged them to get vaccinated.
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“We continue to be aggressive in following the recommended guidelines for following contacts,” the statement said. “We also continue to encourage our employees to follow the same health and safety measures whenever they are outside of them.”
The Ram pickup, the third most popular vehicle in the US, is a major profit factor for Stellantis. The company sold 563,000 trucks last year.
Stellantis’ rivals, Ford and General Motors, each said they had not lost any production in recent weeks due to virus cases.
Slowing production in Sterling Heights was first reported on Friday by Bloomberg News.
Read more: Car news
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